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Self-Portrait

ca. 1647
Not on view
One of the most fascinating and complex personalities in seventeenth-century Italy, Salvator Rosa was an accomplished painter, printmaker, poet, and actor. Here he shows himself inscribing a skull with the Greek words “Behold, whither, eventually.” The wreath of cypress is an emblem of mourning, while on the table sits a book by the Roman stoic philosopher Seneca. According to the inscription, the picture was a present for Rosa’s friend Giovanni Battista Ricciardi, a gifted man of letters from Pisa.

Artwork Details

Object Information
  • Title: Self-Portrait
  • Artist: Salvator Rosa (Italian, Arenella (Naples) 1615–1673 Rome)
  • Date: ca. 1647
  • Medium: Oil on canvas
  • Dimensions: 39 x 31 1/4 in. (99.1 x 79.4 cm)
  • Classification: Paintings
  • Credit Line: Bequest of Mary L. Harrison, 1921
  • Object Number: 21.105
  • Curatorial Department: European Paintings

More Artwork

More Artwork
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Three ox skulls, two horse skulls, and a grotesque head, study for "Democritus in Meditation", Salvator Rosa Italian, Etching and drypoint
Three ox skulls, two horse skulls, and a grotesque head, study for "Democritus in Meditation"
Salvator Rosa
1662
Three human skulls, study for "Democritus in Meditation", Salvator Rosa Italian, Etching
Three human skulls, study for "Democritus in Meditation"
Salvator Rosa
1662
Landscape with a figure seated on a rock, Salvator Rosa Italian, Etching
Landscape with a figure seated on a rock
Salvator Rosa
ca. 1640
Two ox skulls and a portion of a third, study for "Democritus in Meditation", Salvator Rosa Italian, Etching
Two ox skulls and a portion of a third, study for "Democritus in Meditation"
Salvator Rosa
1662
Diogenes casting away his bowl
Salvator Rosa
ca. 1661–62

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